By Ian Grant.
Save Our Seas campaigner Ian Thomson is determined to add another important plaque to Whitsunday Sailing Club trophy cabinet with his solo challenge to set a new record for the circum-navigation of Australia
His challenging voyage will add a different dimension to his personal lifestyle and professional career of skippering dive charter vessels in the warm waters of the picturesque Whitsunday Islands.
A solo sailor has to be a different breed to deal with not only mastering the ever changing mood swings of the weather but also have the required stamina to safely sail and navigate in all weather conditions.
Ian Thomson has the proven long term sailing experience of racing in major offshore events but this 6.542 nautical mile solo marathon promises to test his personal experience and endurance.
There will be little chance for him to settle back in the cockpit and watch the sunset with a cold cocktail followed by a nice fresh cooked meal.
This will be no pleasure cruise n fact life on board will be extremely tough with his energy sustained on freeze-dried hard tack rations and a daily bucket-bath will be a routine requirement to eliminate any chance of skin infections and tropical ulcers.
Also his sleep pattern will be interrupted with noise as the flighty 12 m sloop originally built to contest the 5.500n/ml Melbourne to Osaka Race under the name of Kamikaze tracks her course through a rough and sometimes windy offshore sailing environment.
However with all the mental and physical challenges considered Ian Thomson has a projected plan in place to have the anti-clockwise voyage completed well inside the present solo record of 68 days 8 hours and 30 minutes set by the David Baird Skaffie in 1990.
SOS Ocean Racing is very fast in reaching and running winds and is expected to experience a fast passage along the remote West Australian coast before approaching the colder latitudes and the western end of The Great Australian Bight.
Thomson believes he will have half the voyage completed inside 25 days.
But first he will have to deal with nature and have the personal endurance to sail safe and fast to achieve his personal prediction of slashing 18 days off the present solo record.
SOS Ocean Racing is a fast yacht has the potential to finish the Airlie Beach to Airlie Beach circum-navigation of Australia inside her skipper’s prediction on under 50 days.
But there is a strong possibility that both crew and craft will need to be well prepared to face a testing sail along the rhumbline from Cape Leeuwin across the normally stormy waters to weather Tasmania’s South West and South East Capes before Ian Thompson can chart a course back towards the warmer winter latitudes and the welcome sight of the finish line on Pioneer Bay
